Global PV industry has developed steadily in recent years with new installed capacity hitting 70GW in 2016, a year-on-year increase of nearly 30% and bringing the world's total amount up to 300GW. Driven by rapid growth of the PV industry, global isostatic graphite output approximated 113kt in 2016, 54.1% of which was used in PV field.

Japan, the United States and Europe are home to major isostatic graphite producers in the World. Enterprises with capacity of over 10kt include TOYO TANSO, IBIDEN and Tokai (Japan), SGL (Germany), and Mersen (France). Among them, SGL, Mersen and TOYO TANSO have production bases in China.

China is not only a big manufacturing country but also the world's largest PV market. It ranked first globally both in new PV installations (34.54GW) and cumulative capacity (77.42GW) in 2016. Hence, the country is also one of the most important isostatic graphite markets around the globe. 57.5kt of isostatic graphite was demanded here in 2016, 69.1% of which found its way into PV field.

However, domestic enterprises fail to meet the market demand for high-end products due to capacity crunch, weak technological capability and few product specifications, thus causing a great isostatic graphite supply-and-demand gap in the domestic market. About 41.5kt of isostatic graphite was produced in China in 2016, while another 16kt was largely imported.

Promoted by steady growth of the PV industry, a rise in proportion of monocrystalline panel, and rapid development of EDM and nuclear power industries, China's demand for isostatic graphite will stay on the upswing, to an estimated 108.7kt in 2021. Meanwhile, output will also rise along with operation of new capacity, to a predicted 83.7kt in 2021.